Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Announced

On a closed theatre set in Tokyo, FFXIV Director Naoki Yoshida, Lead Translator Michael Christopher Koji-Fox brings to us a “Final Fantasy XIV Announcement Showcase”

This was supposed to take place at the Final Fantasy Fan Festivals but due to the pandemic, this didn’t happen. An online-only Fan Fest will be taking place on May 15th & May 16th with more information about the upcoming expansion to the game.

The following are my notes from the event:

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

6.0 Releasing: Fall 2021
“The Dawn of Finale”

Trailer:

“We’re going to the moon”

New Jobs!

• 2 new jobs – Healer & Melee DPS
  • Only showing Healer job today

Sage

• Original FFXIV weapon – Nouliths (New-liths) – An “Aether Infused Weapon”
• No class required to unlock job.
• Starting at Level 70
• Requires a job at 70+ to unlock:

• New “roles” for Healers in 6.0 (Like: Ranged DPS, Caster DPS, Melee DPS)
  • SCH is already a “Barrier” Healer
  • Sage will join SCH in this “Barrier” Healer role
  • WHM is a “Pure” Healer
  • Re-worked AST will become a “Pure” Healer in 6.0

Sub-category will be added to raid finder for the ‘type’ of healer.

“Able to temporarily augment thier own magic abilities”
Starting zone for Sage is in Limsa Lominsa.

More will be revealed in May at the Digital Fan Festival.

Yoshida: “We have come full circle”

The entire story will end in 6.0 instead of 6.3.
The game will not be shutting down.

Beginning in 6.1, this will begin an entirely new adventure, separate from the Zodiark/Hydaelyn saga.

People thought this would be the end of Yoshida’s reign as Director.
He reassures, he is not going anywhere.

“Depart from Hydaelyn and go to the Moon”

Yoshida: “We’re going to find Evangelion in the Moon?”

The “Hero” in the trailer is now a PLD in this expansion.

Alphinaud (As Sage weaing the AF Gear):

Alisaie (As RDM, no change for her):

Fandaniel:

He is NOT the last boss in Endwalker. Not saying anything more to avoid spoilers:

Zenos Yae Galvus:

Version 6.0 Features:

Higher Level Cap – Level 90!

Massive New Areas

• Island of Thavnair:

• New Smaller City (Around the size of Eulmore): Radz-at-Han:

• The Garlean Empire: Garlemald

New Tribes

• From Thavnair: Matanga
  • “We are going to the Moon”

New Threats

• Anima – From Final Fantasy X (10)

• The artist who worked on FFX works on the FFXIV Art Team

New Dungeons:

• “We’re getting close to the end of the world”

• “Looks very biological, horror-like”

• “Looks like a train, possibly” (Garlean Tech)

New High-End Raid!:

• “Seems familiar.. Laha..something” (Referencing Lahabrea)

Pandæmonium

Other New Content Coming:

• New Alliance Raid:
  • Completely original Final Fantasy XIV Alliance Raid, not a crossover.
• New Small-scale PvP Mode:
  • New PvP, removing role restructions
  • “Casual, but immersive”
  • New rewards, in addition to gear.
• New Side Quests – Role Quests, Crafter & Gatherer Quests
  • One slight change in this expansion.
  • Instead of 4 types, there is 5: Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Ranged Physical DPS and Ranged Caster DPS.
• New Gear & Recipes
• Trust System Update
  • Adding a new character as a Trust: Estinien – He’ll be playing Dragoon to fill in the role requirement.
• Gold Saucer Update
  • (Yoshida / Koji-Fox reading chat) “Fall Guys?” “Blitzball?” “Snowboarding?” “Sumo Wrestling?”
  • “Please look forward to it” TM
• New piece of content –

• Island Sanctuary – “Players can enjoy some ‘slow living'”
  • Can be played by all classes, not just crafters/gatherers
  • You could be raising animals, cultivating the lands, allowing your minions to roam”
• New Resident District: Ishgard.
  • Releasing the housing district in 6.0 for exploration, not available to purchase right away.
  • You can only purchase from 6.1 onwards.
  • Will contain same amounts of wards as current areas and apartments.

Battle System Adjustments:

Downscaling Values:

• (Same stat squish that World of Warcraft did)
• Calculation causing overflow, resulting in bugs
• Calculations for enmity reaching their limits. (In some cases, numbers go back to 0)
• Flying text becoming lengthy (To the point where graphics rendering is being affected)
• Enemy HP is becoming monstrously high.
  • Eg: The highest HP Pool for bosses in Patch 5.5 was: 440,000,000 HP
• The difference in values used from Levels 51 to 80 will be reduced. Truncating values essentially
  • Eg: Instead of attributes going up by 5% per level between 51 and 80, it may go up by 1% instead
• Maximum Damage per Attack will be reduced.
• Level 81 – 90 will ‘feel’ like how it is right now.
• Experience Points will also be reduced. EXP required for levelling will be reduced.
• Enemy HP and damage dealt will be reduced

BEAR IN MIND, THIS DOESN’T MEAN PLAYERS ARE GETTING WEAKER!

One thing that will be affected is “Undersized Party” – This is still be looked into.

Example: Yoshida’s Black Mage at Level 80, casting Fire IV deals 50,000 damage, will go down to about 10,000
80% reduction or 1/5th of the current number.

Removing Belts:

• Stat values are negligible, no appearance on character since 1.x
• Belts will no longer be equipable starting with Patch 6.0
• Equipped belts will be given to Calamity Salvagers for safekeeping (this includes Retainers, everything will be moved automatically in 6.0)
  • Materia should be removed or else they will be lost
• Belts will no longer be obtainable via duties and item exchanges
• The 35 slots in the Amoury Chest will be relocated
  • 15 slots will be added to Primary Weapons (for a total of 50 slots)
  • 15 slots will be added to rings (For a total of 50 slots)
  • The other 5 will be kept in reserve (for a rainy day)

One more system related update:

Data Center Travel

• Currently you can travel between worlds in the data center
  • There will be a lot of restrictions, more so that what is in place with World Visit System.
  • They are worried about economy between data centers.
    • This was a worry when they released the World Visit System, but it actually made a negligible difference, so they are keeping an eye on this.

CEO of Square-Enix is on stage.

Final Fantasy XIV for PS5 announced!

• Open beta – Tuesday April 13, 2021
  • Patch 5.5 is on the same date.
    (He wasn’t supposed to announce the release date for Patch 5.5)
• <Showing Video of the PS5 version>
• Cleaner UI
• Faster loading times
• 4K Resolution
• Significantly improved Frame Rate

Players will have a choice between:

• 4K Mode – Focused on graphics
• Full HD 2K Mode – Focused on frame rate

Square-Enix CEO: “And what is the price going to be?”

Yoshida then proposes the following to the CEO:

• “Players whose FFXIV Service account has a registered license for the PS4 version may download and play the PS5 Upgrade Edition at no extra cost.
  (Monthly Subscription is still required)”
  • (This is literally the same as the PS3 -> PS4 upgrade)

Approval from the Square-Enix CEO!

Final Fantasy Fan Festival – “Around the World”

• May 15th & May 16th 2021
• It will be online and free of charge. (Including concerts)

Players from Japan might be allowed to attend in-person, but they will see what the restrictions are like closer to the time.

Stream might not be available afterwards in VoD form.

Optional paid extra: – FFXIV Fan Fest – Commemorative Items:

• Mount: Lunar Whale
  • First ever 8-person mount.
  • Minions: Edge, Rose and Rydia
    • These are characters from Final Fantasy IV (4)
• Available on May 15th

“Please look forward to it!!!”